The proposed road would have passed close to Carlos Casado’s land, enabling the company to introduce thousands of cattle to the area.

The company had been reportedly negotiating the sale of this land to Paraguay’s Department for Indian Affairs (INDI), with the idea of returning it to the Ayoreo, but political instability and President Lugo’s recent impeachment, has put the Ayoreo’s land rights back in the balance.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, "Water reservoirs in the Chaco signal one thing – the arrival of the bulldozers. There is no question that as cattle farms expand and forests are destroyed, uncontacted Ayoreo will disappear. This pattern has to stop."

"If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn't we have to turn it over to get it to stand up straight?" -Eduardo Galeano